"Twelve hours after the first presidential debate ended, #BigBird was still trending nationwide on Twitter, PBS was still breaking into the worldwide trends, and @BigBird has attracted more than 20,000 followers.But while the online mania revolved largely around saving Big Bird from Romney’s proposal to cut public broadcasting funding, the facts show that Big Bird has little to ruffle his feathers about.Romney’s proposal to zero-out federal spending for public broadcasting will have little to no effect on Sesame Street’s budget because the show receives “very, very little funding” from PBS, Sesame Street’s executive vice president Sherrie Westin told CNN last week. Westin said the majority of the show’s funding comes from corporate sponsorships, product sales and donations.“Quite frankly, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of public broadcasting. But when they always try to tout out Big Bird, and say we’re going to kill Big Bird – that is actually misleading, because Sesame Street will be here,” Westin said. “Big Bird lives on.”"

[quote] Romney’s proposal to zero-out federal spending for public broadcasting will have little to no effect on Sesame Street’s budget because the show receives “very, very little funding” from PBS, Sesame Street’s executive vice president Sherrie Westin told CNN last week. Westin said the majority of the show’s funding comes from corporate sponsorships, product sales and donations.

“Quite frankly, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of public broadcasting. But when they always try to tout out Big Bird, and say we’re going to kill Big Bird – that is actually misleading, because Sesame Street will be here,” Westin said. “Big Bird lives on.” [quote]

Well, there you go. No need for Federal funding of PBS/Big Bird, so no one should protest when PBS is defunded.

Of course, Romney was using a widely known television program to ILLUSTRATE what he meant by, "As president, I'll ask a simple question about every federal program: is it so important, so critical, that it is worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?"

How does any balance sheet get balanced? By focusing laser-like on every line item and cutting out what isn't absolutely critical to the functioning of the entity. If anyone can do this, Romney can do this. From "Romney Revealed" on CNN:

CNN Senior Correspondent GLORIA BORGER: As the Romneys were struggling to get Ann's MS under control, they were about to face a challenge of an entirely different sort.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Could the scandal over Salt Lake's Olympic bid shatter on the city's quest to host the winter games?

BORGER: The 2002 Winter Olympics were in trouble. Salt Lake City was embroiled in a bribery scandal that threatened to bring down the games. So the search was on for someone to repair the damage.

SCOTT HELMAN, CO-AUTHOR, THE REAL ROMNEY: The list of people who could have come in and saved the 2002 Olympics began and ended with Mitt Romney.

BORGER: Romney knew finance, politics and was a Mormon. And that made him the top choice. A. ROMNEY: They called me instead of Mitt because they knew that Mitt would turn them down flat.

MITT ROMNEY: She called me at work said, you know, I want you to -- don't say no, Mitt. I think you ought to go run the Olympics. I said don't be ridiculous. That's absolutely crazy. I'd never do that. But over time, she convinced me.

BORGER: So despite Ann's health issues, the Romneys left Bain and moved to Utah in 1999. But when Romney really left Bain capital is now controversial. On paper, he remained chief executive officer, raising the question of his responsibility for companies that laid off workers when he was in Utah. He says that he was gone from the company completely, that the Olympics were all consuming.

TAGGART ROMNEY, MITT ROMNEY'S SON: When he got there, it was a disaster. And -- he was panicked. He really seriously considered saying, you know, we -- it's not going to work here, there's just too many problems.

BORGER: Romney need help, so he rallied an old friend from Bain Capital, Fraser Bullock, to be the games' chief operating officer.

FRASER BULLOCK, FORMER COO, SALT LAKE CITY OLYMPICS: Mitt did describe it as stepping into an empty elevator shaft because you're not sure -- you're falling and you're not sure when you're going to hit ground.

BORGER: Bullet joined the team that tried to do damage control. They created an operating plan, tried to convince sponsors to stay on board, and took a critical look at the nearly $400 million budget deficit staring them in the face. And even got rid of the usual catering at Olympic board meetings.

BULLOCK: We had Domino's Pizza. And it was a dollar a slice. Because he knew he could buy a pizza for five bucks, cut it into eight slices, sell them for a dollar a slice, get $8 of revenue for every pizza at a cost of $5. He turned the lunches from a cost center into a profit center.

M. ROMNEY: The Olympics is like putting on seven Super Bowls a day for 17 days straight.

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The practical reality is that America is addicted to spending and debt. It began with FDR's New Deal, accelerated with LBJ's Great Society and increased exponentially with Obama adding $5 trillion to the debt--more than all previous administrations combined.

Treating the Treasury like an ATM machine has got to stop. Romney is the man to stop it.